Sainsbury's takes on iTunes in Christmas download battle

UK supermarket giant Sainsbury's is launching its own digital download service in time for Christmas. It plans to take on rival online services, such as iTunes and Amazon, by offering music and movie files for download initially, with ebooks to follow in the new year.

However, according to videogames industry journal MCV, games will not be available to download from the retailer, even though it is offering the physical versions of them on its new online entertainment store launched last week.

Richard Crampton, head of entertainment at Sainsbury's, said: "Online enables us to offer much more than we can in store”.

“The new site will join seamlessly with our existing non-food online offer so customers can browse and discover their favourite music, films, books and games easily".

However, it remains to be seen whether the latest addition to the brand's offering can compete with more established rivals. If it can undercut other download services with price, in the same way that it does in its many shops, it could well be the place to visit when it's Christmas Eve and you still haven't bought a present for the missus.

A downloaded copy of Progress by Take That has to be better than a king size bag of charcoal brickettes, surely...

Would you use the Sainsbury's download service? Let us know in the comments below...

Our senior ed of news and features has been a tech and games journalist for more than 27 years, and has been with Pocket-lint for over five. Rik has edited a number of videogame magazines in the past, was deputy editor of Home Cinema Choice, and his TV career included stints as co-presenter of Channel 4's Gamesmaster and Sky One’s Games World.